Superhost

I sat down to watch the 2021 horror movie "Superhost" without knowing what it was about. And trust me, if I had known that it was another pointless movie about vloggers, I wouldn't even have given the movie a second glance.

Regardless, I ended up watching this, as I had the opportunity to watch it and not knowing what it was about. I have to admit that I was lured in by the movie's cover/poster, which definitely was an interesting one.

The storyline, as written by Brandon Christensen, whom also directed the movie, was sort of a mixed bag of nuts. I don't enjoy movies about ego-centered vloggers and their pathetic quests for likes and subscribers. It is just a pathetic trend that permeates the social medias of today's society. And it doesn't really make for great entertainment. But then again, the disturbing behavior and personality of Rebecca in this movie was actually interesting enough. So there was a swing and a miss part to the movie, but also an interesting part to the movie.

Needless to say that I didn't care one bit about the vlogging aspect of the storyline, nor did I care about Clair and Teddy, the two vloggers. But I will say that Sara Canning and Osric Chau were good enough performers, but were just given bad characters to portray. It was definitely nice to see Barbara Crampton showing up in the movie, despite only for a short while. Now, I have to say that "Superhost" was carried solely by the performance of Gracie Gillam, playing Rebecca, because her performance was just spectacular.

For a horror movie then "Superhost" was a swing and a miss, it was generic and predictable to the point where it was painful to sit through. There is nothing scary or exciting in the movie, unless you consider vlogging at the top of entertainment.

My rating of "Superhost" lands on a generous three out of ten stars. It would have been rated lower had it not been because of the performance from Gracie Gillam.

Overall, Superhost is a decently fun watch. It has good production value and and a standard, fairly formulaic script for a slasher. The killer has some great moments and kudos to the actress for a solid performance.

That said, I've seen toddlers put up more of a fight than the victims in this film. They are literally useless at defending themselves in any coherent fashion, which takes a lot away from the overall suspense. Good for a couple of laughs.

So, I was not expecting this, but Superhost is, in fact, the film from Christensen that I like the least (I really like Z and Still/Born).

The first act works really well, with some interesting modern approach and some good performances (especially Gracie Gillam) are there for all film saving it from being bad. I also applaude all the blood in the end, the ending itself and the courage to show us all of that.

However, I found the major plot twists really predictable, some similarities with other films who did better in creating the tension (Creep and Creep 2, of course) and some stupid decisions which were really distracting.

I just don't get why two people with all the knives they have at home don't decide to fight someone who has just a knife instead of running away?? And then what about all those times that they separated themselves when it's easier to understand that 2 vs 1 is different than two 1 vs 1? I guess these two vloggers didn't watch many horror films.

If you know what you are getting into, it can be a fun watch. The trailer does a good job of showing what to expect.

7/10

Teddy and Claire visits the house of Betty and Lou with the intention of shooting for their travel vlog. They are welcomed by Rebecca who seemed odd at first and downright scary as the time passes.

There are only four person in the film. The low budget feel is very evident. The story is very straight forward but the characters make it a fun watch. There are some sub plots which was okay but I felt that the film could have focused more on our superhost than those silly stuff.

The amount of blood and gore is very low and shows up late in the short runtime of 84min. I would have rated it little lower if not for Rebecca. I really liked her character and was rooting for her. The odd smile, long stare and goofy dialogues made her character oddly likable. Cinematography is good when we are not seeing the footage from the camera. There are few jumpscares here and there but I would not recommend it to someone who is looking for something scary.

Gracie Gillam as Rebecca has done an amazing job. If you liked the Creep(2014) you will like this as well. I liked it very much for the 2nd half. I liked how it ended and the sort of massage it tried to convey.

These have to be two of the most stupid characters ever in the lead roles. If you don't believe me, just watch for yourself. Nice, original idea that's ruined by execution and poor writing.